Failed trainingsrun - a learning experience!
Hi all, welcome back to my trainingsblog on my pr attempt for Spijkenisse Spark Marathon in November.
Today I set myself up for failure by aiming too high with regards to my weekly trainingsload. This means I experienced my first DNF (Did not finish) in over a year. While it is ofcourse more fun when everything goes according to plan - these are important learning opportunities. So Let’s break down what happened..:
The plan
I wanted to try and reschedule my progressive longrun so I had time to go on a day trip with the kids on Sunday. The scheduled workout would be roughly 35 km (including warming up & cooling down). The pace would progressively become a little stronger (but should be in my zone 3 / zone 4) => hard but doable.
What happened
I pulled out after 25km when I noticed that I could not make the pace for the last 2 kilometers. In my mind I had 3 options:
- Soldier through it, make the distance at the best pace I could possible do.
- Make the distance, ignore the pace.
- Stop the workout and save some strenght for another day!
I decided to end the workout - so I might not have bested this workout. But I can just recover and focus on the next training!
So what went wrong?
On hindsight it is easy to see what went wrong and that reflection is very valuable as it gives you a great opportunity for progress!
My mistakes:
not enough time between hard sessions. The training from Tuesday was HARD and should had given sufficient recovery time. My original schedule prescribed 2 easy days . My wish to reshuffle the workouts shortened recovery to 1 day. Tomorrow (Friday) would had been a better option.
right before starting the run I had 2 cycle trips with a total of 18 km
While not that intense, it did compound on my legs that were not fresh yet.
- HEEL LOCKS haha! I made an error not changing the lacing of my newer shoes… my Sunday long run gave me a painful purple nail. (Fixed the lacing!)
Looking forward
This is why you train, it is allowed to be (too) difficult at times as long as you learn and adapt! I had great fun today - despite being a little disappointed. But will gladly focus on relaxing & recovery now and be ready for the next run!
Happy running!
There is no shame in failing, as you know. At least you failed at a difficult goal. Plus you learned to make sure and take the extra day of rest after a hard workout.
How long will you rest until your next run? Waiting until Sunday or Monday?
Thanks! Yeah, these are real learning opportunities, especially when you are still weeks out you can make some adjustments!
My plan for tomorrow is to skip the zone 1 recovery run - make it a 90 min - guided meditation session (hopefully a powernap). On saterday I aim to do a recovery run. Sunday hard workout (tempo blocks)
Sounds like a good plan, enjoy!
Have you read the books Finding Ultra or Can't Hurt Me? They talk quite a bit about training and running, good books if you like reading!
Yeah I liked both! With David Goggings he is a different type of human being, won’t follow his approach haha. His reflections on the last pages are really interesting.
I am currently reading “in the spell of the Barkley”
Yes, Goggins is a different type of human for sure!
In The Spell of Barkley sounds like a good book. I've never heard of that race or the book. How do you like it so far?
Barkley Marathon is the most extreem run there is - last 35 years only different 15 psople finished. The book is written by a guy that only came to the “fun rounds”.
Book is awesome! But also will look into getting my hands on a book from one of the finishers!